2011-07-04 Tom de Wet writes from Welkom that firefights, torching of homes and murders are common-place amongst thousands of illegal golddust-panners in Welkom. Armed Afrikaner families live under siege –and not a cop in sight to protect them.

The Afrikaner working-class families – mostly miners - are under virtual siege, caught between armed, warring factions of gold-panners (zama-zamas) who are descending enmasse on the mining town from neighbouring Lesotho. “These mini-wars raging amongst the zama-zamas now occur right on the door-steps of longtime Afrikaner residents,’ writes De Wet. Afrikaner residents in Flamingo Park and Rheeder Park were put under siege inside their own homes again on Sunday-night when ‘many shots were fired’ and fires were started in both suburbs simulaneously. This outbreak of violence erupted only a week after two gold-smugglers were shot dead and one was injured in front of the house of Pieter van Zyl – who is known as the ‘white sangoma (tribal medicine-man)’ in the Free State. Another gold-smuggler was injured in the firefight. These so-named zama-zamas, illegal gold-panners, are streaming into Welkom to pan gold-dust on the vacated mining-properties. De Wet quotes resident Mrs Amanda-Louise Nel of Flamingo Park as saying that the residents are ‘very upset and unhappy.’ There’s no police protection. On Sunday night they heard gunfire very near their home, just as they were sitting down to supper. “I looked over my concrete fence and watched this miniwar taking place just metres from our home. What happens when these people start hiding in our backyard and we are caught in the middle of these gun-fights? This was confirmed by Mrs Jakkie Hees, who was visiting her mother-in-law when the gunfights started. “I cannot describe our terror. You hear the shots being fired, people screaming and flames just shooting up right near our homes. What can we do to protect ourselves?” Mr vZyl said these gunfights now are á regular thing. Last Sunday he stumbled across the corpse of a shot gold-smuggler right in front of his home, a second one a bit farther down the road, and found an injured man across the street. “Huge amounts of cash and gold-dust were found on these people,’ he said. The Afrikaner residents of an old-age home and a children’s home in the suburb of St Helena are also under siege: with the white residents being robbed, threatened at gunpoint – and one woman and her child stood at their gate in neighbouring Naudeville, watching while a man was shot dead just metres from their home; and his corpse then loaded into a truck and driven off. Volksblad obtained comment from Lesotho’s high commissioner Sethunya Koqo that they ‘visited these problem areas in Welkom’ together with the manager of the Harmony Gold Mine and the local ANC-mayor. Plans are afoot, claimed Koqo, to ‘get the government of Lesotho involved in getting these people repatriated to their homeland.’ Local SAPS spokesman capt Stephen Thakeng wasn’t much help either: he only commented on one of the incidents, which he said was sparked off by ‘Rheeder Park residents who suspected a Lesotho resident of killing one of their own and set fire to their property. The Lesotho residents defended themselves with stones and sticks,’ he claimed. The police ‘patrolled the neighbourhood all night,’ he claimed. - Volksblad http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Oorlog-woed-nou-by-Welkom-20110704

Picture right: Only two years ago, the SA police were still arresting these illegal gold-miners in organised campaigns across the country - but these gold-mining crime-syndicates fought back hard with booby traps using explosives and Chinese-issued AK47s, set to keep the police at bay when the mines were still operational. During these policing-operations in Welkom, sixty illegal gold-miners died in a fire which they had started themsevles to keep the police from invading the Harmony Gold mine in Welkom: http://mg.co.za/article/2009-06-02-more-than-60-illegal-miners-killed-at-sa-gold-mine

Nowadays however, the gold-mining syndicates have pretty much taken over most of the mining-operations in South Africa. Illicit mining is also spawning other illegal activities, including child prostitution and child labour. These highly organised, well-resourced syndicates rake in billions of rands from the gold and other pricy minerals which are being hacked from the mine-shafts below. The zama-zamas also increasingly sift through the minetailings-dumps to retrieve gold-dust – and it’s these golddust-miners which are causing such problems for the Afrikaners in Welkom. They are even digging up the streets to get to the dust below… Local gangs help these syndicates by continuously recruiting gold-panners from neighbouring countries like Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Many are children, pressed into service, especially if they have to go below into the warren of tunnels. The gold is smelted down in little backyard smelters and then sold to Chinese syndicates.

On June 5 2011 – defenceless mom Ansie Velthuysen, 46, and her two nine-year-old children were murdered in a fierce struggle: blood-coated rooms showed…

2011-06-06 WELKOM. – Police told Volksblad newspaper that the Velthuysen family was totally defenceless: the nine-year-old boy desperately tried to crawl underneath his bed to hide from his murderer – but was dragged out and killed, markings on his back showed. His nine-year-old slain sister’s body was on her bed in the same room; their 46-year-old mother’s blood-covered body was found in the main-bedroom of the family-home in the working-class traditionally Afrikaans suburb of Dagbreek, Welkom.

Volksblad journalist Tom de Wet quoted SAPF capt Stephen Thakeng as saying that the organised-crime unit was ‘following all the forensic leads’ to try and find the murderers of the unarmed three-member family. The unnamed family had moved into the house only two months earlier and no-one in the neighbourhood knew them. A neighbour said he last saw the woman on Sunday-morning outside in the garden. He had noticed ‘nothing unusual’. A friend of the dead woman who stopped by on his motorbike at around 19:30 on Sunday, discovered the tragedy when he looked through a window after finding the house locked and silent. He reportedly ran into the street in fear and neighbours alerted the police after seeing the carnage inside. Police broke open the front door. One of the witnesses told Volksblad journalist Tom de Wet that the two children were not at school on Thursday.

The ANC-regime has turned Welkom into a crime-swamp overrun by thousands of criminal gold-panning gangsters:

Comment from local resident in response to article: “Welkom has horrific problems which you would not wish on your worst enemy. Tens of thousands of ex-miners and other unemployed people live here now, the poverty just drips off the old mine-shafts. There are some 2,000 illegal black ‘miners’ panning gold in the old gold-diggings, and these activities are under control of mafia-type criminal gangs. The police are overwhelmed by this criminal community and practically helpless to stop it. If a police-van drives up they just run away briefly. My biggest fear is that once the source of panning-gold is exhausted, this organised criminal army will turn on the town, the nearest suburbs with families and the shopping centre. Nothing less than a battallion of troops in an armed crime-sweep would be able to wipe this area clean of these criminals. Private-security is a must. What residents need here is a Very Strong police commander who would dare tackle this problem. But he’s also having to deal with sidekicks who inform the gangs of any crime-sweeps being planned…’

ANC-regime fails to intervene in illegal land-occupation of white-owned farm near Harrismith

Journalist Alani Janeke notes in Landbou.com that there is widespread concern amongst the private property-owning communities of South Africa about the illegal occupation of a white-owned farm outside Harrismith by residents from QwaQwa – because police refused to intervene in time.

Despite the fact that the white owner lodged his formal request for their removal well within the 72-hour maximum-time limit before a court-order is needed, local SAPS colonel Christopher Mophiring demanded a court-order. Volksblad noted on June 30 tha the family, who have a home in Qwa-Qwa, set up shacks and brought 20 heads of cattle to the farm and have refused to budge. Masiteng Petrus Sekonyela and his wife Mrs Masefefo Julia Khoete occupied the farm ‘because ANC youth league leader Julius Malema told them to,’ they told the news media. Malema said at the annual congress of the league that ‘land must be occupied without compensation’. They took him seriously. Agri-Free State executive Henk Vermeulen said it’s now a legal fact – (after the police deliberately delayed for 72 hours to evict them) – that the family could not be legally removed without a court order. “They have placed a caravan and a shack on the property and moved in.” He said the white owner, Petrus Weyers, was ‘not a member of their organisation but they would be willing to assist him with advice, and we are monitoring the situation’. He claims that it’s ‘very difficult for people who do not belong to an organised agricultural group to tackle such problems’. Local MP of the Democratic Alliance Athol Trollip said President Jacob Zuma must declare himself publicly about the issue of illegal land-occupations of privately-owned land – as a matter of urgency. “He must say whether this is ANC-policy. He must reject all those radical proposals by Malema. Zuma must indicate exactly which steps he will take with his administration to address the clear failures of his ‘land-reform’ projects.” http://www.landbou.com/nuus/nuus-artikel/plaasbesetting-polisie-tree-nie-op

The land-grabbing campaign in towns and countryside: 'the land should be shared among those who work it…’ -Deputy-min. Thulas Noresi, Rural Development, Land Reform Dept’s explanation for the recent military training of the National Rural Youth Service Corps specifically to ANC youth league members – who are given military weapons and –training: they are given military training to carry out ‘rural census’ surveys…’

New developments: lately, the ANC-regime's cops have been consistently refusing to remove illegal black squatters from commercial farms and city-properties within the legal 72-hour timeframe; deliberately delaying the landowners' requests so that they have to obtain court-orders after 72 hours. The regime's representatives also refuse to detain criminal cops who attack white smallholders in the Sasolburg region; and allowed a black-racist cop out on a mere R2,000 bail – after he killed Afrikaner resident Jeanet Odendaal execution-style in Welkom. The authorities also refused to help legal white land-owners evict illegal squatters at two organised invasions of white-owned land: outside Harrismith (occupied by Qwa-Qwa residnets) and 750 privately-owned plots in a Welkom suburb. The police deliberately delayed going to the two properties to evict the illegal, well-organised squatters. Now the white property owners are facing tens of thousands of Rands in court-costs to get these people off their land. Well-informed political analysts believe that these were 'test-cases' - and that full-scale land-invasions of all privately-owned properties in towns and the countryside are being planned. Deputy-agriculture minister Pieter Mulder, July 1 2011: "White farmers must safeguard themselves against attacks and landgrabbing by the ANC youth league...' On July 1 2011, the Deputy-Agriculture Minister Pieter Mulder warned white farmers to ‘safeguard themselves against attacks and landgrabbing by the ANC Youth League..’. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Safeguard-yourselves-farmers-told-20110619

117,000 protesting strikers ‘want to make SA cities ungovernable’.

2011-07-04 22:52 Ügen Vos writes from Johannesburg that ‘thousands of Numsa metal-union workers invaded the streets of Johannesburg on the first day of a countrywide strike-action threatening to make South African cities ungovernable.

Numsa claimed in a news release that up to 117,000 Numsa workers protested in mass-actions in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London. This week another 70,000 workers were expected to join the nationwide strike from the petroleum, industrial-chemical and consumer-goods sectors. the 5,000 workers who were gathered outside the ‘Workers’ Library’ in Johannesburg told the journalist that they were extremely unhappy because they had not had any raises since 2007 – but meanwhile prices are soaring. “We struggle to make do on our wages. The government lies when they brag about all the new job opportunities they are creating. What we really need is long-term employment with living-wages.’ He interviewed a quality-control inspector who would identify himself only by his first name, Patrick: he ‘struggled to look after four children on a monthly wage of less than R5,000. A driver complained that he only was paid R12 an hour, about R1,200 a month. Others mentioned that they only had R60 to R70 left over from their Friday-wages after they bought food and paid for their transport-costs.”I earn R52 an hour and do three different kinds of welding-jobs,”complained Henry Msimango . “I work hours of 160 hours or longer a month. The money is just never enough. You work yourself to death but just never get anywhere.” Volksbladhttp://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Duisende-stakers-in-Jhb-se-strate-20110704

Non-striking white Solidarity members in danger from strike violence (SA Labour News) Solidarity – the trade union representing mainly Afrikaner workers -- reports that the wage strike by members of other unions which started yesterday at companies that fall under the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council turned violent at several factories and Solidarity members consequently feared for their safety. If the safety of non-striking cannot be guaranteed, the union will consider withdrawing its members at the workplaces concerned. The union will decide next week whether or not to accept the employers’ final offer.http://www.solidariteit.co.za

Platinum mine disrupted by violent strikers

Platinum miner Platmin says that operations at its Pilanesberg Platinum Mine are still being affected by disruptions caused by disgruntled workers, who are employees of MCC Contracts, and that it is in negotiations with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over this. There was an illegal strike at the mine last month, accompanied by violence, which stopped operations. http://www.businessday.co.za

Strike 'will be last straw for small companies'

The strike in the metal and engineering industries could be the last straw for small companies struggling to rebuild their businesses in the wake of the economic crisis, according to the Cape Chamber of Commerce. President Michael Bagraim says there are already companies in the engineering sector on short time and, if there is to be an increase of more than the 7% offered, there will be downsizing and retrenchments.Read more at Business Report

Black-racist attacks against whites have soared since Jan 2011 Since January 1 2011, at least 990 black-racist attacks have already been logged against whites – and the majority of these victims were Afrikaners and Boers. http://www.farmitracker.com

By comparison, 170 ‘xenophobic’ attacks were logged in this same time period against the 11-m black-African refugees. All but one of those attacks were carried out by black-racist South Africans. There was only one exception: the recent murder of a Malawian man, for which a young Boer, Robert Louw van Tonder, now is being hunted down with a large pack of heavily-armed reactionary cops – a manhunt which is accompanied by a public demonisation campaign in the pro-ANC Afrikaans news media. It’s a political manhunt: there is widespread fear in the Boer community that this young man – a grandson of Boer State Party founder Robert Spiller van Tonder -- will not survive the manhunt to even get his day in a law-court…. By comparison, the authorities seem to completely condone the hundreds of monthly attacks against ‘whites’ – it is seen that for instance, the large organised gang of black police-officers who actively participated abnd were arrested for armed gang-attacks against white smallholders in the Sasolburg region, were released without charges, and back at their jobs – noted local Magistrate C J Musi recently. http://www.farmitracker.com

ANC plans unilateral change to Constitution to get centralised State control over all colleges away from Provinces 2011-07-04 Cape Town parliament. The ANC ‘s new law which would give total control to higher-education minister Blade Nzimande over all the higher-education colleges, is expected to be approved in parliament soon – even though ominously, the Constitution has to be changed to do it. Only one province, the Western Cape, opposes the ANC plans to take the higher-education portfolio away from the provinces. (source: SA journalist Liesl Peyper). Nzimande recently reminded MPs in his budget-speech that he was determined to centralise all the tertiary-education institutions: at the moment, control is shared between the national- and provincial authorities. The Constitution would have to be changed to allow the control of tertiary education from provincial- to State-level. Nzimande claims that it ‘makes sense’ to centralise all the tertiary colleges and adult-education systems under his centralised control. The plans were vehemently opposed by Democratic-Alliance MP Dr Wilmot James. He said the centralising of control would undermine the present provincial system. In the proposed law, a clause is included which would change Portion A, Section 4 of the Constitution – which stipulates that ‘education at all levels except tertiary education would be an equal concurrent of both the national and provincial authorities.’ Only once province opposes the proposed change to the Constutiton: the DA-run Western Cape.http://bit.ly/lLlGM9

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '